


Homecoming

by military_bluebells



Category: The Pacific (TV)
Genre: Episode: s01e05 Peleliu Landing, Fluff, Kissing, Multi, OT4, Reunions, Skinny Dipping, Soft Boys, Team Leckie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:14:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25510405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/military_bluebells/pseuds/military_bluebells
Summary: The nerves kick in just before the last corner.Leckie stops in the middle of the dirt road and takes a deep breath. All the thoughts that have been weighing on his mind since before his escape from the hospital island – no better than Pavuvu with shrinks, nurses, and other lost men instead of his friends – come back. He’d been so stuck in his own misery that he hadn’t realised the only things keeping him together were them until he was miles away from them. They’ve never been apart since the beginning of this damn war, even when he was moved to Intelligence; it had felt wrong, but now he isn’t sure if he can face them. Chuckler will probably be fine, he’s too much of mama bear to keep him at arm’s length, but Hoosier and Runner are harder to predict.
Relationships: Wilbur "Runner" Conley/Lew "Chuckler" Juergens/Robert Leckie/Bill "Hoosier" Smith
Comments: 9
Kudos: 19
Collections: Loose Lips Sink Ships Prompt Meme





	Homecoming

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ama](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ama/gifts).



> Hi ama, you don't know me at all but I've read a bunch of your works including _One Night_ , which made me want to give you this fic as a gift since yours is the only fic in the OT4 tag on here. 
> 
> Idk if the Pacific is still your thing but I hope you enjoy this anyway.
> 
> Loose Lips Sink Ships: Hoosier/Runner/Chuckler/Leckie - Welcoming Leckie back 
> 
> I didn't know if the prompter wanted smut or fluff so I went with the safe bet.

The nerves kick in just before the last corner. 

Leckie stops in the middle of the dirt road and takes a deep breath. All the thoughts that have been weighing on his mind since before his escape from the hospital island – no better than Pavuvu with shrinks, nurses, and other lost men instead of his friends – come back. He’d been so stuck in his own misery that he hadn’t realised the only things keeping him together were them until he was miles away. They’ve never been apart since the beginning of this damn war, even when he was moved to Intelligence; it had felt wrong, but now he isn’t sure if he can face them. Chuckler will probably be fine, he’s too much of mama bear to keep him at arm’s length, but Hoosier and Runner are harder to predict. 

He steels himself - he’s a Private in the US Marines for god’s sake - and carries on his trek. He adjusts the sack on his shoulder and nods to the couple of men he recognises. He walks towards the hut that should belong to them and doesn’t hesitate to open the creaking door when he sees all three of them inside. 

“Ho, ho, ho.” 

“You know this guy?” Runner asks around a cigarette. He’s sitting shirtless on his bunk with a set of cards in his hands and looking him up and down. 

“Looks ugly enough ta ring a few bells.” Hoosier follows, lounging on his bunk before putting his cards down on the unturned crate they’re using as a table. 

“Gloucester maybe?” Chuckler chimes as Leckie turns to put his sack down on the free bunk. 

“Was is Gloucester?” Runner asks immediately. They bounce off each other then, back and forth, almost overlapping. 

“He may have been on Gloucester.” 

“He looks familiar.” 

“Maybe he was on Gloucester.” 

“I don’t know he’s ugly.” Leckie turns at that last one, to say with feeling, “Fuck you all.” before returning to his sack, pulling it open to retrieve the presents stashed inside. Never let it be said that he’s a stingy bastard. 

“Looks like a land crab that once crawled up my pee hole.” Hoosier says, probably with that soft grin of his. Leckie laughs, echoed by the others and the nerves drop away as quick as they'd risen. He routes around inside his sack; the things have all fallen to the bottom and he has to reach his whole damn arm in to find them. 

“Welcome home Cobber.” Runner says. 

“Have a good vacation?” Chuckler asks. 

Leckie turns and takes Chuckler’s offered cup, “Anything to get away from you bastards.” He raises it in a toast and takes a swallow. 

“We’re not so lucky.” Runner says, easy to hear now that he’s taken the cigarette out of his mouth. The taste of the water kicks in suddenly – rusty and sharp – and he coughs. 

“Oh there you go.” Chuckler teases. Hoosier laughs loudly, bright and open, and Leckie can’t believe how much he’s missed this, how much his soul has pulled together in just the last minute. He coughs again, the taste still lingering on his tongue like cheap, bad Austrailian beer, 

“What’s in this?” 

Runner shrugs, his cigarette back in his mouth, “When it tastes this bad, it’s hard to tell.” Leckie licks the fabric of his shirt in a last ditch attempt to rid his mouth of the taste before turning back and setting the cup on one of the horizontal wooden beams running next to his bunk. “Hey, what’ch you got?” 

Since he can’t find the presents with his arm, he starts unpacking properly, taking out his notebook and few other things. “Depends. Tell Santa if you’ve been naughty or nice.” 

“Naughty, the naughtiest.” 

Lew chuckles, “It’s June.” 

“It’s the South Pacific,” Leckie turns to grin at Chuckler, “Christmas comes in June.” 

He picks up the Pinup magazine he swapped two of his deserts for and holds it out to Bill. “For Hoosier, 'cause he’s always saying his prayers and making his bed.” 

Runner and Chuckler coo when Hoosier shows them. 

“Look at that.” 

“That’s beautiful.” 

Leckie diverts back to his bunk and picks up the unstained Superman comic he won from the guard and the copy of _How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie_ he’d found in a random, unlocked drawer. “Chuckler.” 

“Yes.” Leckie hands him the comic. “Thank you.” 

“Heavier reading.” 

“with pictures.” Runner adds, smirking as Chuckler shows him the front cover. Leckie waits until Bud’s attention returns to him before holding out the book with a knowing smirk. 

“Something for Runner’s stocking.” 

“Aww, I’ve read this already.” Runner moans. 

Leckie grins, wandering back to his bunk. He sits and picks up his notebook, leaning back against a wooden beam, to observe them. They’re grimier than he remembers, half-dressed as he did recall – _many_ times when he felt the presence of mind to miss them in other ways – and overall stung out. 

Runner isn’t shaking with a bout of chills or soaked in sweat so his malaria must have died down some. Hoosier is lazy in his movements, lounging on his bunk with the pinup magazine in his hands, flipping the pages in the way that Leckie knows means he isn’t really looking at the girls. It isn’t out of the ordinary to see that vacant look on his face – Leckie thinks he may know four of the infinite reasons that Bill’s face does that and right now he can’t decide between boredom or the kind of thinking that got him in trouble. Chuckler, as always, looks sunny and relaxed in a less drained way, happily engrossed in the slightly faded pictures of the comic. 

He takes the time to dictate his leaving of the hospital and his journey back to Pavuvu and, in careful words, his reunion with the people he loves most in this world. When he reads them back, he can’t help but notice that they don’t quite convey all his feelings. Nothing he ever writes about them perfectly conveys the cocktail of emotions he’s submerged in every time he's around them. 

Even like this, sitting on a rusty bunk, on a sweltering Pacific Island, in almost silence, he feels like he did when he was baptised, caught in that second of peace between submersion and resurrection. 

* * *

They drag him out of the hut just as he’s gotten comfy on the thin mattress. He makes sure they understand this grievance all the way out of the camp as Chuckler leads them down to the beach and along the sea front. The sun is still high in the sky and the water still shockingly blue, so unlike the Atlantic he was used to seeing in his childhood. You’d think the novelty would have worn off by now, having spent years around it. 

“Where are we going?” Leckie asks, when he realises he doesn’t recognise this part of the beach. 

Chuckler turns, walking backwards, “We found this spot that no one else knows about.” Hoosier looks over his shoulder and smirks. Runner too looks more mischievous than he’s comfortable with. 

“This isn’t where you’re going to honour kill me for ditching you in favour of the gorgeous nurses at the hospital, is it?” 

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” Hoosier replies dryly. Runner laughs, skipping up over a piece of rock protruding out of the sand. Chuckler shakes his head and takes them inland, through damp foliage and untrodden grass. That’s one fantastic thing about these islands, you walk twenty feet in any direction, and you end up in a completely different world. Chuckler pushes through the branches of a particularly large plant and holds them back from the rest of them passes through. Leckie goes last and stops dead. 

In front of them is a large rock pool with blue water so clear he can see every contour of the rocks below the surface. The rest of the sea lingers behind the grey rocks enclosing the pool and as he stares a wave washes up and over the rocks to disturb the still waters of the pool. Foliage grows all around the perimeter and one spot shelters a small portion of the pool’s water, with the rest of it bathed in sunlight. 

It’s the most beautiful place on earth. 

“Come on Leck.” Leckie jerks back to consciousness as Runner grabs his hand, tugging him down a thin slope to the water’s edge. Hoosier’s already fully naked – his shirt, pants, skivvies and boots piled on a waist-high rock – and wading into the water. Chuckler isn’t far behind; his cotton tee off, exposing the long stretch of his torso to the sun. Runner whistles appreciatively and Chuckler grins, bending down to undo his laces. 

“You joining us any time soon Professor.” Hoosier calls. 

“Just admiring the view.” He replies with a smirk. Runner laughs as he opens his fly and pushes his pants and skivvies down in one go. He’s suddenly, extremely overdressed, with Chuckler naked and Runner almost there. He sits on a rock and starts with his boots as Runner sits on the edge of a rock platform and dips his legs in, both of them watching Chuckler trying to splash Hoosier will little success. 

The emotions in his stomach swirl like a hurricane and Leckie takes his time unbuttoning his shirt to soak in this moment, to take it into his bones and store it for when he'll need it. He pushes his pants and skivvies down to his ankles with little hesitation: the Corps have taken what little embarrassment he was capable of when it came to nudity. 

Runner’s unable to keep a straight face as he looks him up and down and wolf-whistles. Leckie laughs and makes his way to the water’s edge, standing next to Runner and surveying the pool with his hands on his hips. Chuckler’s floating on his back, all of him on display in the bright afternoon sun. Completely shameless. He spots too late that Hoosier has disappeared and suddenly finds himself plunging headfirst into the crisp water. He splutters when he breaks the surface, wiping the water out of his eyes and spitting it out of his mouth. He’s surrounded by laughter and he can’t help but join in. 

“You could have killed me.” He points out when he gets his breath back. 

Hoosier snorts, “Like I would've done that if I didn’t know there was enough water.” Leckie grins like he always does when Bill says something nice without meaning to. He swims back to the rock platform and offers his hand out. “Oh, like I’m fallin' for that.” Hoosier snarks, batting Leckie’s hand away to sit and slip into the water next to him. 

The water is deep enough to come up to their collarbones and only obscures their bodies a little. Hoosier huffs and lunges forward to cup the back of Leckie’s head and plant one on him. Leckie sighs into the kiss and pushes back, demanding they take this a little faster than Hoosier normal lazy pace, because it’s too damn long. Hoosier chuckles and pulls back – unwilling to bend to Leckie’s wants as always – but the hand stays on the back of Leckie’s head, tangled in his curls. 

“Now that was hot.” Chuckler calls from where he’s treading water a few feet away. Hoosier pushes off the rock face and swims over to him, immediately trying to dunk Chuckler’s head under the surface. Leckie sighs and turns to Runner. 

“Why do we put up with these children again?” 

Runner shrugs loosely, “They’re funny and nice to look at.” 

Leckie hums in agreement and pushes himself into the space between Runner’s dangling legs, raising a questioning eyebrow. Runner laughs, a wide grin spreading across his face as he says, “Sure Peaches.” He shuffles to the very edge of the rock platform and leans forward. Leckie wraps his arms around his waist as politely as he can and together, they get Runner to slip off the rock and into the water, his arms wrapping around Leckie’s neck. It presses them chest to chest, their dog tags catching on one another. 

Runner’s too short to stand without being up to his nose in water so he ends up wrapping his legs around Leckie’s thighs. Leckie doesn’t mind, because it gives him the excuse to palm the soft skin of Bud’s ass. 

“Just kiss him already!” Hoosier calls. He and Lew seem to have called a time out of the attempted drowning competition. 

Leckie huffs and turns back to Runner, raising an eyebrow and the corner of his mouth, “Well?”. 

“Fuck you.” Runner laughs and Leckie presses their lips together the second after. Runner’s mouth is smaller than Hoosier’s but no less enjoyable. Bud kisses the most shyly of them all, lack of wide experience making him tentative. Leckie always enjoys taking control of the kiss and coaxing his mouth open: with Hoosier it’s always a battle and with Chuckler a game, but with Bud it’s a soft dance, the two of them working together in time. 

“Alright, alright that’s enough of that.” 

Leckie and Runner pull back at the same time and Runner huffs as Chuckler slips in beside them, pressing both of his palms against Leckie’s cheeks to draw him into a playfully short kiss. Lew then pulls back and lays smacking kisses all of his face: on his cheeks, his chin, the button of his nose, between his eyes, his temple, his ear. Leckie cuts him off just as he tries to stick his tongue in his ear. 

“A swear you’re like a puppy.” Leckie says as Hoosier presses in on the other side, one hand brushing the small of Leckie’s back and the other joining just under the hand he still has on Runner’s ass. 

“What is it with you guys and my ass?” Runner asks. 

Chuckler shrugs, “It’s just nice to touch, like a women’s breast but better.” Leckie’s pretty sure Chuckler joins them, covering the whole of Bud's free cheek with a gigantic hand. 

“Firmer.” Leckie adds with a serious nod. 

“Softer than a kitty’s fur,” Hoosier teases, rubbing his nose behind Runner’s ear. By now, they all have him blushing and spluttering to find a retort. It’s when Chuckler’s other arm wraps around his shoulders that Leckie feels tears pricking in the corners of his eyes. 

“Hey, Lucky, you okay?” Runner asks seriously, his mouth pulling down into a frown. 

Leckie nods, swallowing thickly, “Yeah, yeah, I just… missed you all. It felt like I was missing a part of my brain or - or my soul.” 

Chuckler squeezes them together even closer – they should be getting cold by now, standing around in sea water – and Runner presses his face into the side of Leckie’s neck, Hoosier joining him on the other side and Chuckler pressing his cheek to side of his head. It feels like he’s been wrapped in a warm blanket or feed a warm meal, like he’s been asleep and only now is he opening his eyes to the dawning sun. He presses his face into Runner’s hair and goes limp. 

“Welcome back Bob,” Bud mumbles. 

“We’ve got you.” Lew adds. 

“Ain’t no other place we’d be.” Bill finishes. 

* * *

That night, after the picture and after Sledge takes one of his books, Chuckler gets them all to squeeze on the floor. Hoosier makes up a half-hearted argument about the fact they had decent beds _right there_ , but Leckie just drags him down into the pile and makes sure he’s wrapped up tighter than a Christmas present in his blanket while Chuckler sprawls around them and Runner starts drawling on his chest. 

It’s the best night’s sleep he has in weeks.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing _any_ Pacific stuff so be gentle.


End file.
